The invention relates to dental apparatus and methods, and more particularly to a method and system for producing a plurality of dental copings simultaneously.
Dental copings, for example for crowns and bridges, have been made in several different ways. They have conventionally been produced from wax warmed and softened in a warm water bath and vacuum formed on dies of the tooth or teeth. They have also been formed by manual application of molten wax on the dies via a spatula. Dies have also been dipped in molten wax held in a container.
However, when a wax coping is removed from a die, it must be handled with extreme care to avoid deformation of the coping, which would destroy the coping. Also, prominent points on a die covered with wax tend to poke through the wax, forming a defective coping.
Wax copings have generally been produced one at a time, by pushing the softened wax or a putty-like thin sheet of material by hand down over the die.
Thin sheets of relatively rigid plastic material in different thicknesses have been used previously to produce some full-mouth dental appliances such as night guards, custom trays, etc. but not to produce accurate copings.
Previous apparatus and processes for producing dental copings were not capable of efficient and reliable production of a plurality of dental copings simultaneously. Such procedures were also not capable of producing a substantially rigid coping which retains its shape, and these are objects of the present invention as described below.